


wait for me? (i will.)

by wlwrwby



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt No Comfort, Reincarnation AU, Snowfall, no beta we die like redheads in rwby, snowfall au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 00:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29849940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wlwrwby/pseuds/wlwrwby
Summary: Winter and Cinder throughout the lifetimes.(Human beings were never meant to be infinite.)
Relationships: Cinder Fall/Winter Schnee
Comments: 1
Kudos: 35





	wait for me? (i will.)

_~~THE FIRST WORLD.~~_

Winter and Cinder had grown up together, you see. They had grown up together in the first world of the Gods, living amongst the immortals and finites alike. And when that world crumbled, they died together. 

They had stood at the end of the world hand in hand. Uncertainty was all they had ever known, and now, together, they would face the ultimate unknown - death. As the light took over them and the world caved in because of a woman’s love, they stared at each other one last time. Because if they were the last sight each other would see, death couldn’t possibly be all that bad. The world was ending, and all that they could think was how beautiful the other looked in the light of the burning embers. 

Winter and Cinder. Their names were more often spoken together rather than not, as if no one could bring themselves to tear them apart. Not even the Gods. Not even death. 

So, in the end, Winter and Cinder were together. As they always dreamt they’d be. 

* * *

_~~THE SECOND WORLD; IN THE BEGINNING.~~_

They woke up, and for the first time they could remember, they were apart. 

And for some reason...they were alive. 

They were alive in a new world filled with evils and monsters. The old Gods were gone and they were beginning. 

So what if there were rumors of a witch in the woods?  
  
So what if there were evils abundant and tragedy rising to the surface?  
  
So what if this was all strange and new and they didn’t know why they were alive?  
  
Because they found each other again. Because they were together in this strange new world. They needn’t believe in magic to know that this was a gift. 

For some reason, whatever it may be, they were given a second chance.  
  
So they lived. 

Not happily ever after as it went in the books, because the witch grew restless and a war began and such a thing wasn’t quite possible. 

But they lived. 

And for them, that was enough. 

* * *

_~~THE GREAT WAR; A LIFETIME ON THE BATTLEFIELD.~~_

But apparently it wasn’t. Because they had lived a mostly peaceful life together, rejoicing in their blessed second chance, and died peacefully just as the war began. 

And now they were reborn once more. Just in time to fight in it. 

They were fighting in it, together as they always were, back to back as bullets dared to try and tear them apart, protecting each other as ash filled their lungs and the night grew to day and the fight still raged on. 

Together, when they were shot down. 

Together, when they held each other close. Though the battlefield roared around them, they lay together on the ground as their third lifetime came to a close. 

Together as they always were when they died. 

“We’ll try again next life,” Cinder gasped as she held Winter’s hand and her vision grew faint. Blood trickled from her forehead. She was covered in sweat and dirt and Winter still thought she was the most beautiful thing in this wretched world.  


“Wait for me?” 

She needn’t ask. For Cinder would always wait for Winter, she would always find her way back to her. 

“I will.” 

And with that, Cinder closed her eyes and welcomed the brief respite of death. She was so tired of living. But as long as Winter was by her side, she would welcome many lifetimes more. 

* * *

_~~AFTER THE GREAT WAR; ATLAS ACADEMY.~~_

Perhaps, they thought, the last lifetime was a fluke. Because this time, they weren’t fighting in a war. 

No, this time they were partners at Atlas Academy, teenagers again and basking in the freedom and potential of youth. 

But they were beginning to feel the weight of living multiple lifetimes. The human mind was intended to be finite - it wasn’t meant to withstand more than one life. 

But they didn’t dare tell each other. After all, not everyone got to spend infinity with their soulmate, right? Surely, this was a gift rather than a curse.  
  
So they lived. Because they had each other by their side through it all. 

  
What’s one lifetime more? 

* * *

_~~THE TRUE END.~~_

It was taking longer this time, Winter noticed, for them to find each other again. 

Had something happened to her? Had she been hurt without Winter to be by her side? 

...Had she died without her? 

It wasn’t until the Vytal Festival when she finally got an answer. 

_“This is not a tragedy. This was not an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians but are in reality nothing more than men.”_

Ice grew in Winter’s heart as she listened to the sick narration of the tragedy that would surely be remembered in history until the end of time. Her hands shook, her breath stopped in her throat and it felt like she would never be the same again. 

Because Winter knew that voice. She would know it anywhere. She would know it in sleep, in life, in death itself.  
  
But what she didn’t know is _why_. Why was she doing this? 

Winter got her answer months later in the Winter Maiden’s rooms. Cinder had burst through the door, mouth curled into a snarl that looked _wrong wrong wrong_ on her face. Her hair was cropped, her left eye was covered with a patch (could she have stopped it, if she’d been there?), her left arm was...inhuman. Grotesque. She stopped in her tracks as she laid eyes on Winter. And she had the nerve to smile - to look _relieved._

“Winter, I-” Whatever relieved sentiment Cinder was saying was cut off without hesitation. 

“What are you _doing_?” In all the years Cinder had known Winter, she had never once heard her sound so cold. And most certainly, it would never have been directed at _her._ There was not an ounce of warmth in her voice. Instead it was replaced with betrayal, confusion...contempt. 

Quite a question, it was. And quite an answer it brought. 

“I…” Cinder’s voice faltered as she tried to find the words, the reasons for her actions that had burdened her thoughts every day as she pushed it away in hopes that one day it would come to her. Even now as she stood in front of Winter, the one person she thought would make it all make sense again, she found she couldn’t quite find an answer. But for Winter, she tried. 

“I’m so tired, Winter.” 

Cinder took a step towards her love, her one constant in all the lives they had lived within each other’s arms. She reached for her hand and took it, cradling it as if it was the most precious thing in their Gods-forsaken world. 

Winter felt the warmth of Cinder’s human hand. It felt just as she had remembered; soft and strong. The Grimm arm felt...wrong. It was cold and rough, void of the wedding bands they had placed upon each other’s fingers each life without fail. 

“I was scared and alone and-” 

No. Winter pulled her hand away and took a step back, her face flushed with fury. 

“But you weren’t! You never have been!” Tears grew in her eyes without her permission. “You could have found me-” 

“No!” Cinder’s eyes turned aflame as her voice raised. “I am tired of living, Winter.” 

She stressed each syllable as if it would make her understand. “I found a common goal in Salem. We both just want to die. I loved our time together, I did. But I can’t do this anymore." 

Winter shook her head and let the words escape her mouth, loud and angry. 

“Do you think I’m not tired of it too? I’m _exhausted_. But the reason I got up every morning was the hope of finding you again and being with you.” She gestured her arm at Cinder. “And _this_ is what you’ve been doing this entire time? Going on some death march with no way to find out if it could actually work?” 

A sob escaped her mouth as unshed tears finally fell. When she spoke next, her voice was impossibly small. 

“...You were going to leave me behind?”  
  
“Win, you don’t understand. I saw an opportunity, it was right in front of me and I had no choice but to take it. I was going to find you eventually.” 

A few seconds passed without a response as Winter stood with her eyes pressed shut in futile hopes of stopping the tears, a small part of her hoping that she would open her eyes and it would all be revealed as a bad dream. Worried, Cinder began to approach Cinder, human hand outstretched. But before she could reach her, Winter opened her eyes and raised her chin. Her words were coated in a layer of abhorrence.  
  
“We always have a choice. My sister told me that. She was there for me when you weren’t.” 

Silence. Cinder’s gaze grew scared, remorseful for just a split second. She studied Winter’s face as she put the pieces together in a puzzle she wasn’t sure she wanted to see finished. 

“What is it now?”  
  
Cinder studied her face as if just now reaching a terrible conclusion.  
  
“Your sister?”  
  
“...Yes?” 

“...Nevermind.” The Maiden shook her head and rid her mind of all thoughts but her mission. “You know why I’m here.” 

Winter drew her sword and planted her feet, steely determination in her eyes. “I do.” 

Those same words had been spoken at their wedding lifetimes ago. “I do,” they had said hand in hand at the altar as they celebrated their love. “I do,” Winter said as they stood before Fria’s chamber, weapons drawn and aimed at the other. 

“I’m sorry.” Cinder said before she swung. 

“Me too.” Winter replied, words lost in the deafening symphony of battle, but spoken all the same. 

. . . 

“Will you find me? At the end?” 

The words were hard for Winter to get out, beaten and bruised after a fight that never should have been. But she needed an answer. Because the end of the world was coming again and Winter had never known death without Cinder. 

“Always.” 

And with that, the Cinder turned and ran, the two trying and failing to numb the pain that came with the string tying their hearts together pulling taut, taut, until it snapped in two. 

They were broken. 

And they both knew it was in a way that could never hope to be repaired again. 

. . . 

And so it ends as it began. 

It ends as it began, in the end of the world and the sky void of all blue. The air was more ash than oxygen, screams and cries tearing through the eerie silence. The world and everything in it seemed to be still, as if every living creature was holding their breath and waiting for the inevitable end. 

But Winter and Cinder had heard this song before. They had sung it themselves and would now sing a ruthless reprise. 

For they had been there at the first end of the world and watched it burn hand in hand. And now, they would be here for the second end. But this time has one divergence not even the Gods could have foreseen. 

Winter and Cinder were diverged from one another. Though they were made to be each other’s half, and were given every chance in the world to become whole again, they had taken a different path. Both of them knew once they took that first step that things would never be the same again - that they could never turn back. 

Because now they both had lit a match of their own accord. The fire was spreading. The world was ending. 

And both of them had a part of the blame. Together, yet apart. 

There was always next life. 

Perhaps, then, they could try again. 

But for now, it ends here. 

(But they knew it could never happen - not after all they’d done.) 

For some reason, they had lifetimes by each other’s side. It never should have been. Perhaps this was the Gods’ way of punishing them. 

Their very existence was a mere accident in the grand scheme of things. 

But what a beautiful accident it was, yes? 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! Major thanks to my wonderful friend Rami (@snowfallkiss on twitter) for introducing snowfall to me and the angsty potential of it. And so, this was born. 
> 
> (also, before anyone comments, I know cinder is quite OOC in this. but since it's a reincarnation au, I thought it would be fitting for cinder to be softer than she usually is. she's lived lifetimes with winter, and a love like that doesn't burn out easily.)
> 
> As always, I appreciate each and every comment and kudos! They truly fuel me to write more. Thanks again for reading, and have a lovely day!<3


End file.
